Felix Ruckert

Felix Ruckert (* 1959 in Mespelbrunn ) is a German dancer , choreographer , conceptor and author . He became internationally known with pieces that were shaped by interactive concepts such as HAUTNAH, RING, DELUXE JOY PILOT and SECRET SERVICE. These are works that are characterized by radical style, originality of content and unconventional interpretation of the audience-actor relationship. Often he gives the viewer an active role in the performance and confronts him with intense emotions. For these interactive choreographies he invents special techniques for physical communication and perception and develops them into an art of touch. Another focus of his work is the development of improvisational structures and composition techniques, called "tools".

He currently lives in Berlin and is the artistic director of the Felix Ruckert / Berlin eV company, founder and curator of schwelle7, an experimental space for dance and BDSM and initiator of the annual “xplore” festival, a three-day event on creative sexuality, BDSM, performance and ritual .

biography

Felix Ruckert studied dance at the Folkwang Music Academy in Essen as well as in Paris and New York . His most important teachers included Malou Airaudo, Hans Züllig, Jean Cebron, Barbara Mahler, Maggy Black, Alberto Corvino and Peter Goss.

During his training he began to develop his own choreographies. He first gained public attention with awards at choreographic competitions in Cagliari (1987) and Hanover (1989). Cut, premiered in Paris (1992), caused a first scandal: Even here, sexuality was explicitly discussed and the audience was asked to intervene in the course of the performance.

At the same time he always worked as an interpreter for other choreographers. He was involved in the first three productions of Neuer Tanz, Düsseldorf - Wanda Golonka at that time still together with VA Wölfl: Die Böse Minute, Die Schiefe (both 1987) and Leitz (1988). He spent three years in France , where he worked with a wide variety of representatives of the Jeune Danse Francaise, including Jean Francois Duroure (1990), Mathilde Monnier (1991), Charles Cré-Ange and Sidonie Rochon. Eventually he was brought to her Wuppertal dance theater by Pina Bausch , where he danced a large part of the repertoire, including Le Sacre du Printemps , Viktor, Kontakthof , Blaubart and Palermo, Palermo , as well as in the creation of Das Stück mit dem Schiff (1992) and Trauerspiel (1993) participated.

In 1994 he left the Wuppertal troops to found his own company in Berlin. Since then he has been touring internationally with his own projects, which range from interactive experiences with the audience to installations and purely choreographic research. As a guest choreographer he worked for the Ballet du Rhin, Mulhouse / Alsace, for the National Ballet Vietnam and for the Star Dancer Ballet, Tokyo. He staged his improvisation project Die Küche (1993–1995), a mass ritual lasting several hours with up to thirty dancers and musicians, with local artists in twelve different cities in Europe. In 1995, at the invitation of DOCK 11 , Berlin, he created the first version of Hautnah , a collection of solo performances for solo audiences. A concept that by no means made him known suddenly - as can be read again and again - but, because of its unusual and disturbing character, took years to establish itself. It was not until 1998 that the piece was shown in its third version at the German Dance Platform in Munich. Finally, in 1999, it was voted one of the ten most important performances of the year by the New York Times . Hautnah completed 243 performances worldwide.

The following productions: Krapplack (1997), Schwartz and Eden Project (1998), Ring and Choreographic Project (1999), Stillen, City Sleepers, BlindDates (2000) Deluxe Joy Pilot (2000) Secret Service (2002), Love Zoo (2004 ), United Kingdom (2006) repeatedly surprised critics and friends of work with radical new beginnings and experimental scenic forms. Ruckert often gives the viewer an active role in the performance and confronts them with intense emotions. In between there are phases of pure movement research and work on improvisational structures . Mush Room (2003) Tools (2002), Venus in Hanoi (2004) and tokyo-tools (2005) are examples of such work.

What all works have in common is the questioning of the reception of Life Performance. From 1998 to 2006 Compagnie Felix Ruckert received funding from the Berlin Senate and mostly worked at Dock11 . She was supported by the Goethe-Institut on her numerous international tours. At the invitation of foreign institutions and companies, Felix Ruckert also choreographed pieces in Antwerp , Brussels , Paris, Prague , Lausanne , Montréal , Mulhouse, Salvador da Bahia, Toulouse as well as in Kyoto , Tokyo , Japan and Hanoi , Vietnam .

In July 2004 Felix conceived and curated the first edition of the xplore festival, which took place in Dock 11 in Berlin. Since then, the festival has gathered a large number of international lecturers and several hundred artists, BDSM freaks, tantrics and other free spirits every July, who come together for workshops, lectures, performances and conversations at the interface between art and creative sexuality. With xplore, Felix Ruckert created the first of a series of participatory formats that he calls "Social Choreographies" or "Magical Fields", which promote an Ars Erotica in the sense of Michel Foucault. As of 2011, local versions of xplore were organized in Sydney, Australia, Paris, Barcelona, ​​Vienna, Copenhagen and Rome. In 2018 the Berlin event moved to the Malzfabrik in Berlin-Tempelhof, where it currently gathers around 600 participants annually. Further editions of the festival are currently in Rome and Barcelona.

In March 2007 Felix Ruckert opened his own production and event location in Berlin: schwelle7, which was dedicated to participatory work and experimental body practices. He worked and lived in Berlin until May 2016. In addition to the focus on dance and body art, schwelle7 also offered workshops that dealt with practical and technical aspects of SM play and dealt with theoretical, aesthetic or philosophical questions in connection with BDSM. schwelle7 tried to investigate connections, parallels and interfaces between the world of art and sexuality. Part of this research was the conception, curation and hosting of the first Touch & Play Festival in May 2010 in collaboration with Daniel Hayes. The lecturers and artists presented in the nine years of schwelle7 included Peter Banki, Stephan Dreher, Katie Duck, Dossie Easton, Janet Hardy, Stéphane Fratti, Stanislav Grof, Matthias TJ Grimme, Richard Hancock, Julyen Hamilton, Mo Herzinger, KJ Holmes, Traci Kelly, Daniel Lepkoff, Barbara Mahler, Paula L. Rosengarthen, Pipaluk Supernova, Maggie Tapert, David Zambrano, to name a few. The Kinbaku masters (Japanese rope bondage) who taught and performed in schwelle7 included a. Osada Steve, Arisue Go, Nawashi Kanna, Midori, Hajime Kinoko, Akira Naka and Ren Yagami. At schwelle7, Felix Ruckert further developed the idea of ​​art as a "Celebration". He experimented with projects on the border between performance and party, such as the monthly full moon game party The Aristocracy of Desire, the silent game party Ocean of Other, the Play Fight Club, the Bowen Lounge, the schwelle7 orchestra and the weekly Bondage Jam.

In 2011 he founded the pop band CHASTITY together with singer Christine Borch and bassist Andy Benz. The band released the album STAINS & SPLATTER in March 2013. In 2019 he released a second album "I WANNA BE A HORSE" as the fictional character "Shylix".

In 2012 he initiated the festival EURIX - The European Rigger & Model Exchange - which is dedicated to the development of the art form Kinbaku (Japanese rope bondage) in Europe. Twice a year the event presents the most innovative European rope artists and gathers a large crowd of lovers for practice, research, performance and theoretical exchange. EURIX takes place at the Holzmarkt in Berlin.

Since 2019 he has been organizing the KONK weekend as a "magical field" once a month in the Neue Spitzmühle, on the Bötzsee near Berlin.

Choreographies

(*** for Compagnie FelixRuckert / Berlin)

• 1987: working / sleeping / eating
• 1988: on / off
• 1989: Trash
• 1990: Free fall
• 1991: Fauves
• 1992: Cut
• 1993–1995: The kitchen
• 1995: Cibo
• 1995: Up close in 'Berlin' ***
• 1995: Hafenlos ***
• 1996: Close to 'Brussels' ***
• 1996: Close to 'Berlin II' ***
• 1996. Interferences
• 1996. Close to 'Hamburg' ***
• 1997: madder ***
• 1998: Schwartz ***
• 1998: Eden Project ***
• 1999: Ring
• 1999: Close to 'Montréal' ***
• 1999: choir. Project***
• 1999: Sbalit
• 2000: Breastfeeding ***
• 2000: Kalam
• 2000: City Sleepers, Station Scores, Blind Dates
• 2000: Jinnen
• 2000: deluxe joy pilot ***
• 2001: tXt ***
• 2002: Secret Service ***
• 2002: Hotel Leipzig ***
• 2002: Love University
• 2002: Gender Observation ***
• 2002: The Interviews ***
• 2003: Tools (and Tricks for Survival in Outer Space) / commission for Ballet de l'Opera du Rhin, Mulhouse
• 2003: MushRoom ***
• 2004: Love Zoo ***
• 2004: Venus in Hanoi or The Art of Getting Lost / commissioned by National Ballet of Vietnam, Hanoi
• 2005: Messiah Game ***
• 2005: pain construction pain
• 2005: tokyo-tools: multiple choices and glorious routine / commissioned by Star Dancer Ballet, Tokyo
• 2005: Placebo Treatment ***
• 2006: United Kingdom ***
• 2006: Water Music ***
• 2007: Betwixt and Between ***
• 2007: On Pain and Presence / production for schwelle7 Berlin
• 2008: Die Farm *** / production for schwelle7 Berlin / Performance at xplore Festival
• 2008: Engenho / commissioned by Ballet de Teatro Castro Alves, Salvador da Bahia (Brazil)
• 2009: Spaces for Stories ***
• 2010: lust and lies
• 2010: The Saint and the Whore (Solo, Choreography: David Bloom, Dance: Felix Ruckert)
• 2011: Dryade - A dark fairy / production for schwelle7 Berlin
• 2012: Zero Gravity Zone / Kunsthaus Rhenania Cologne
• 2012: I am not Your Mother / Performance at xplore Festival
• 2013: I am Your Mother / Performance at xplore Festival
• 2016–2018: several rope bondage performances
• 2018: Creating Sexpositive Spaces - The Living Room Tour
• 2019: Kidnapping / Mass Marriage / two performances at xplore Festival
• 2019: Your dress is strange / commissioned by eX ... it Festival, Schloss Bröllin

Web links

• Compagnie Felix Ruckert / Berlin eV
• threshold7
• xplore
• The system of "tools"
• Germany in Japan 2005/2006 with a short biography